With a 9-year-old in tow, I traveled to Bar Harbor, Maine for this year’s Pride Festival:
We missed the Friday “All Ages Drag Show” due to a wedding rehearsal dinner, but managed to make it to the parade itself and the subsequent Pride festival.
The parade began with speeches on the Village Green.
Shortly before receiving an official government escort from two police cars, several speakers talked to the crowd about cruel official government oppression of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community.
Child’s sign: “I get my cardio running away from heteronormal”.
Due to rain, the Pride Festival was moved to the YWCA, which explains that the “Christian faith” motivates it to “empower women” and “believe in science” (i.e., that some of the best “women” didn’t start out with a female gender assignment on their birth certificates).
Once inside, Queers for Palestine merchandise was available to purchase.
It’s a right-wing conspiracy theory that the 2SLGBTQQIA+ are targeting children. It’s just that there was a drag show for kids with free cupcakes and other sweets provided by Hannaford, the local supermarket that started in Maine and is now owned by Ahold Delhaize, the Dutch-Belgian conglomerate. Here’s the Hannaford table:
Happy kids watching the first drag queen:
We left as the second drag queen started her performance:
Don’t forget to #MaskUpToSaveLives
It’s too bad that we didn’t bring Mindy the Crippler (our golden retriever), though perhaps they’re using “dog” in the strict AKC sense and bitches are excluded:
We swung by the Hannaford supermarket on the way back to the hotel and had the chance to save our beloved planet via a reusable Pride-themed shopping bag:
We sadly missed the evening drag show due to the need to spend 6 hours huddled in a tent while rain poured down outside in 60 degree temps (an average summer wedding in Maine):
That’s quite a commitment to the cause. 20 years ago, they would say a cohabitating man investing that much money in a gay event was at least bisexual. The rest of us would take the money & go to Ibiza.
Thanks, lion. It is too bad that you weren’t available back in 2024 to tell my friend’s daughter to get married in Ibiza rather than in Bar Harbor (Ibiza certainly would have been cheaper!).